


In For a Penny...

by enthusiasmgirl



Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Anxiety, Debt, Episode: s01e10 Nelson v. Murdock, F/M, Financial Issues, Friendship, Homelessness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:57:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5146019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enthusiasmgirl/pseuds/enthusiasmgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foggy didn't have secrets from Matt, really. Just things that he omitted from the conversation or didn't want to have to say out loud. The financial weight of Nelson and Murdock and the anxiety and stress it put on him was one of those things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zelofheda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelofheda/gifts).



> So this is a fill for a Daredevil Kink Meme prompt found [here](http://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/1296.html?thread=2145040#cmt2145040). This prompt was given to me to fill by the winner of the [Daredevil Minor Character Fic Fest](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/DD_Minor_Character_Ficfest). The prompt is as follows:
> 
> _"As someone elsewhere pointed out, Matt and Foggy are probably up to their eyeballs in debt. The rent for their office space and apartments, utility bills, paying Karen's wages as well as their own, food and other basics, that $3000 worth of half-broken office equipment... You can see where I'm going. I'd like to see a fic where Matt's all caught up in Fisk and Daredevilling and doesn't notice how dangerously in the red they are, whereas it's all Foggy can think about. And he's not trying to push too hard on the fact that they should really get some paying clients, because he knows that that's never what the practice has been about, but he also knows he's the one having to deal with the letters from the bank, and the bills that keep on coming in. And he doesn't want to worry anyone, because both Matt and Karen have their own problems to deal with, so Foggy does his best to cope._
> 
> _So his electricity gets disconnected. No worries, he'll do his work at the office. So he starts skipping meals. He could maybe afford to lose a few pounds, it's no biggie. So he maybe starts taking out loans from less than savoury people when the bank starts saying no. It's ok, he'll get the money from somewhere. Things escalate quickly._
> 
> _He's managing fine, until suddenly he's not._
> 
> _Bonus for Matt suddenly realising that Foggy is basically running the practice on his own because he's been so caught up in being Daredevil. Cue guilt and angst."_
> 
> Me being me, I chose to fill the prompt by re-writing my way around canon because I for some reason cannot get enough of viewing the events of the show through the lens of "Foggy has a secret of his own". This is honestly, I am not even kidding, the LAST time I write on of these fics, because even I'm starting to get bored with me.
> 
> But I do hope everyone likes this. Also, it is unbeta'd, so concrit and pointing out of any grammar or spelling mistakes is very welcome. :)

Foggy woke up trying to remember the night before, anticipating a hangover and bracing himself for pain. He was surprised when it didn't come. Instead, he only felt a dull headache and realized that he was still in his rumpled suit from the night before, drooling onto a throw pillow. Next to him, a glass of water sat on Matt's coffee table along with a bottle of Advil. The water glass was half-full, so he must have been offered it the night before and taken it then.

He was on Matt's couch. Well, their former couch from when they had lived together. He could tell before he even opened his eyes because it was softer than the one in his apartment, and the smell reminded him of good memories. It didn't smell like cigarette smoke and dirt from the curb where Foggy picked his up following the eviction of a older woman in his building.

Matt's fleece blanket, one of many that Foggy knew his friend owned, was draped over him too. Matt must have tucked him in the night before when they had stumbled back to his apartment, drunk and celebrating.

Foggy went to sit up and something fell out of his hand as his fingers uncurled from the fist they'd been in as he'd slept. It fell to the floor, and as Foggy moved to pick it up, he realized that it was that stupid napkin with its crude drawing of a sign. Their sign. Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law. That was what they had been celebrating. They were really doing it.

It was exciting. But also terrifying. He was only partially kidding with Matt about having urine in his trousers at the thought of it. He wondered if Matt was as scared as he was. He doubted it.

The thing about Matt, the thing that he had been surprised to learn about Matt when he met him, was that for someone who had led such a tragic life, he had money. Had always had money in the entire time Foggy had known him. Not a lot of money, but enough of an inheritance from his father, and enough of a settlement from the Rand Corporation from his accident, that he had never struggled to get by the way that Foggy had.

Matt had also attended Columbia on a scholarship, so he hadn't had to take out student loans the way that Foggy had. And, both due to his disability and his savings, Foggy had never seen him take a part-time job of any kind. Foggy had worked for a cleaning company on weekends and sometimes in the evenings to help pay his costs while at school, a fact which probably ended up being the difference for him between graduating cum laude and summa cum laude, he knew.

It ate at him, if he were being honest. It didn't feel fair. But that was just life. Matt also didn't have parents constantly calling to check on him and nag him about making sure that his education would be worth it, guilting him about choosing such an expensive path at a time when the family business had only recently collapsed into bankruptcy, but Foggy would never stop appreciating that, and knew that he wouldn't trade the things Matt had for the things he had in a million years. Matt worked incredibly hard and had lost so much that he deserved to succeed.

They were both thrilled to land a paid internship at Landman and Zack, and the past few months, Foggy hated to admit, had been some of the most freeing of his life as he finally began to feel like he was getting to a more financially sound point. He'd begun to pay his student loans off and managed to get himself his own apartment, even if it wasn't his idea to live on his own and his apartment was nowhere near as nice as Matt's.

But this... this was going to be difficult. Worth it, Foggy knew. An adventure. A chance to make something that was theirs. But it meant that he was going to have to budget for himself more carefully, that they were going to have to really scrape and save in every possible way, maybe even chase a few ambulances to bring in the clients they needed to get off the ground.

So he stared at the napkin from where it lay on the floor with a mix of excitement and gut-churning anxiety building in his chest.

"Still sure?" Matt asked him, drying his hair from the shower as he entered the room.

"Of course!" Foggy said. "Are you kidding? It's everything we've been dreaming about."

Matt sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. "Listen, Foggy, I've been thinking. I know that you're already in debt and I've got my savings from working at Landman and Zack, so let me take the loans out for the partnership in my name."

Foggy was surprised and moved by Matt's offer, but shook his head. "No way, Matt. All of the start-up costs plus the six months of operating costs we would need banked before our billings would start coming in? That's way too much to ask you to take out yourself."

"Foggy..." Matt tried to interrupt, but Foggy cut him off.

"No," Foggy told him, "It's a partnership. That means we're equals in this. It wouldn't feel right starting out with you having more on the line, more to lose than me. We're in this together or not at all, buddy. Okay?"

Matt nodded his head and smiled. "Okay," he replied.

* * *

They had hired an accountant to take care of the bookkeeping initially. Worrying about the finances was never either of their strong suits, and Foggy's connections in the neighborhood meant that the man they hired was a friend of his dad's who Foggy knew wouldn't overcharge them and who he trusted to be straight with them. Which is why he wasn't surprised to receive a call from him the day that they due to meet with the realtor about their lease.

"Foggy, have you thought this through, son?" the man asked.

"I know, it's going to be hard, but I'll be okay," Foggy told him.

"I'm just worried. I understand that you want to throw everything you have into this venture, but you've set the payout for yourself much too low based on the projections you gave me to work with," the accountant advised. "Do both of you have the savings to cover your own bills outside of these figures, Foggy? Because if not, I'm worried that you'll end up sleeping in that office."

"We'll be fine," Foggy said. "Don't worry about us. We'll have our projected clients and more coming through the door in no time!" He took a deep breath and approached Brett, paper bag in hand, ready to make that statement true.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during episodes 1-3.
> 
> Also, can I just point out how happy I am that I busted out the Franklin "Foggy" Nelson & Elena Cardenas tag on this fic. There needs to be more of that.

Foggy was furious at Matt, even if he wasn't the type to outwardly express it. They needed paying clients. He didn't understand why Matt didn't seem to be agreeing with him on that part of their business plan. Foggy didn't spend good money on cigars for Bess to bribe Brett into sending them a pro bono case. And it was too early in their partnership for them to be wasting time and effort working for free when they could be earning money.

And now, they had a secretary who they also couldn't afford, who could only pay them for the work they did for her in lasagna. He was happy to eat, but he was also worried about how he would continue to eat in the future.

Although, she did end up being innocent. And helping her felt pretty good. Plus, she was very pretty and good company. So he let it go. He trusted Matt.

But the next one would have to be able to pay them.

* * *

It was 11:30pm. He didn't know what to tell Karen when she asked him why he was singing Gilbert and Sullivan in the office at that hour. What was he supposed to tell her? That he'd tried to go home earlier in the evening but turned around when he saw the police cars and caution tape blocking off the entrance to his building, unable to face finding out what horrible crime had happened there while he was at work. It could have been gang violence or a burglary, but Foggy suspected that they had finally busted the grow op and drug ring that operated down the hall from him. When he'd realized what had happened, something in him had snapped and he didn't feel like facing another night of listening to screaming babies and loud partying through paper-thin walls, or of sensing the hordes of cockroaches that ran under the furniture when he switched the light on.

He deflected Karen's questioning by asking her what she was doing there. Because really, what was she doing there?

They left at midnight because there was no way that Foggy was leaving the lights on in the office for them after that point and running their electricity bill up. Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. That's one of the lessons his parents had taught him, and lately he had been applying it more carefully than ever.

They stayed out all night. They drank the cheapest booze that Josie had behind the bar. And they bargained with old Japanese men at the fish market. He let her think he was doing it for her because he knew she didn't want to go home. But he didn't exactly have anywhere else to go either.

* * *

$100,000. For one case. For a few weeks of work. Enough to put a good chunk of money back into the business and have them each walk away with a tidy sum to get them by. Another six months of operations where they could breathe and know that they would be okay and have time to focus on bringing in clients.

And Foggy was going to have to turn it down. He couldn't believe that he was even contemplating it, but he knew as he observed the cold, calculating way that Healy answered his questions and put him in his place that he had no interest in taking the case or the money.

So he was surprised when Matt intervened. And confused. And relieved. He wasn't sure whether to hug his friend and thank him for seeing sense (and making Foggy see it too) or shake him and ask him what had gotten into him.

But... $100,000. Whatever had gotten into Matt, Foggy was willing to look the other way. Just this once.

* * *

"To victory!" Foggy said from his seat at the bar, the tone in his voice betraying how celebratory he really felt. But he swallowed his doubts and self-loathing and lifted his glass anyway, remembering that he and Matt were $100,000 richer. The check cleared, just as the Confederated Global sleazeball had promised it would.

Karen lifted her glass as well, but Matt only barely acknowledged Foggy's statement. He looked depressed, and Foggy was disturbed by the fresh bruise on his neck that just barely poked out from under his shirt collar. What was going on with his friend?

"Hey, Matt?" he asked, drunk enough that his words were slightly slurred. He put a hand on Matt's shoulder gently. "You alright, pal?"

"Yeah," Matt said, forcing a smile. "To victory." He lifted his glass, toasted them and drank.

"So," Foggy said, trying to cheer his friend up, "I think it's time we give Karen her extra reason to celebrate today, don't you think?"

"What are you talking about?" Karen asked, confused, but Foggy saw a genuine smile creep across Matt's face. He pulled an envelope out of a pocket inside his jacket and handed it to her.

Karen opened it hesitantly, but grinned and laughed when saw what was inside, delighted.

"Karen Page, you are now officially an employee of Nelson and Murdock, paycheck and everything. This first check represents back pay for your work over the last few months and is hopefully the first of many more to come. To our loyal and reasonably paid office administrator!" Foggy said, lifting his glass again.

"To Karen," Matt said, and they all drank.

"Josie!" Foggy said, slamming a hand down on the bar, "Another round, on me!"

* * *

As they drank and toasted well into the night, relief flooded through Foggy's system. The eviction notice his landlord had posted on his door had given him 30 days to vacate the premises, and he was now on day 10. With the money from their case now finally in the bank, he had more than enough time to find a new place to live. Everything would be okay. Just barely.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during episodes 5-6.

20 days. He was so close. And now, it was all over. He knew, as Karen finally forced him to have the doctor look at the gash in his chest at the hospital, that any hope he had of being able to afford first and last month's rent on a new place was gone.

"Who's your insurance provider?" Karen asked him from the chair next to his bed as she filled out his paperwork.

"Don't have one," Foggy said as he again dialed Matt's number on his cell phone, panic flooding his system as he watched the news coverage of the explosions and ongoing hostage situation on the small television.

"Jesus, Foggy!" Karen said, "How can you not have insurance?"

"Well it's not like I can get it through my employer, is it? Given that I'm my employer?" he joked, half-halfheartedly. "Insurance is expensive and our practice is barely scraping by as it is. I'd rather invest the money in what we're doing right now."

"Of course," Karen said with a sigh. "I'm sorry. That's probably the last thing you're worried about right now." She glanced nervously at the the television and Foggy knew that she was thinking about Matt too.

But then Foggy saw her smile, and he turned his head to see Mrs. Cardenas enter the room, looking a bit dazed and worse for the wear, but sporting only a stitch across her forehead. The woman saw Foggy laying in the hospital bed and immediately cried out and began fretting over him.

"Senor Foggy, your chest!" she exclaimed.

"It's fine, Elena. I just lost some blood so they've got me on some fluids and medication to get me back on my feet," he said, sitting up so she could see that he was lucid and okay. "What did they say about your head?"

"They stitch, and they..." she struggled to find the words before finally turning to Karen and rambling on in Spanish for a moment.

"She says that they ran many tests on her head to make sure she hadn't hit it too hard and would be alright, and then they stitched it up with special stitches that dissolve so that she doesn't have to come back," Karen explained.

"Thank you," Elena turned and told him. "Senor Foggy, you are so brave. My neighbors, they thank you too. Our hero." She grabbed both of his cheeks with her hands and squeezed them, and Foggy grinned, feeling his heart grow several sizes when the woman started to tear up before pulling him into a hug. He groaned at the tug on his stitches. She pulled back quickly. "Oh!" she said, flailing her arms, upset that she may have hurt him.

"I'm okay, Elena," he said. "I promise."

Foggy was surprised when Elena turned around and said something to Karen in Spanish that seemed to confuse Karen. She handed Karen money from her purse. He felt left out until Karen finally nodded and turned to him.

"She's wondering if I can go and get the two of you something to eat," Karen explained. "She says that it's been hours since we've eaten and she saw a vending machine down the hall. I'll be right back."

Once she left, Foggy's smile faded as his eyes were drawn to the television again, and then back to his phone. No new calls. No new text messages. Where the hell was Matt?

Mrs. Cardenas settled into the chair Karen had vacated and took his hand. He noticed her looking down at the clipboard that Karen had left behind with emotions in her expression that Foggy couldn't place.

"No Senor Murdock?" Elena asked.

"He hasn't turned up yet, but he will," Foggy said. "He was probably at home when it happened." He hoped he was right.

Elena suddenly looked nervously at him. "The women at the front, they say..." she started, and it took her a moment to find the right English words. "They say no pay. I no have to pay. They say a man tell them he pay for me."

"Elena," Foggy said, "I've seen how you're living," he said. "I know that you can't afford the hospital bill, especially with all those tests they did. Do you even have insurance?"

Elena only looked at him and then down at the forms again, and Foggy understood the implication. He wasn't in a much better position than she was.

"Bess..." Elena said, "Bess tell me she worry. That boy in trouble, she say. He need help but no tell me."

"Is that why you came to us? Because Bess was worried about me?" Foggy asked. "I'm fine, Elena. I'm doing alright."

"No home on the paper?" she asked, pointing.

"I have a home," Foggy said. "Karen just hasn't asked me for the address yet."

"You have a home," Elena said. "You come home with me. I feed you. You help me fix. I make sure you fine. I promise Bess. Yes?"

Foggy leaned his head back against the wall and blessed Bess Mahoney and her too big heart. "Yes," he told Elena. "But only because I don't like the thought of letting you live there on your own. And I'm going to do my best to win your case, too. We'll get those workmen to come back and sort everything out."

Elena nodded as Karen re-entered the room with an armful of Hostess cupcakes and Lays Potato Chips. They settled in. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Foggy woke up at 6am to find Matt asleep in the chair next to him. He reached for his hand, gripped it, and fell back asleep. He could sort everything else out later, but knowing Matt was okay was all that mattered.

* * *

"No, mom! I'm fine, honestly," he lied as he stacked the boxes full of his belongings in the rented storage unit. Honestly, he was unsure what was going to happen next.

His share of the money from the Confederated Global case was gone, his bank account decimated by thousands of dollars in hospital bills. What was left would have to cover the costs of the storage unit, his phone bill and having enough food to eat for the near future.

"I know you're worried, but I can't come stay with you for the weekend, mom. I have work I need to get done," he told her when she reminded him of how shady she had found his landlord when they had helped him move into his apartment, and how little she was worried he was eating.

Telling his parents what was really going on was out of the question. They'd drag him to live with them permanently and never let him forget the failure. They already weren't keen on the idea of him being a lawyer to begin with, were already nagging him about how he was going to pay back his debts. If he told them about what was going on, his dad would probably put his resume in at the rendering plant he worked at without even asking him, they would be lending him money that he knew that they didn't have at the expense of their own retirement, and the entire thing would spiral out of his control.

"I know that I can work from your house," he told his mother when she continued to insist he visit, "but the trip from here to New Jersey is long on public transit and it's easier to work out of the office where I can be close to Matt and have access to my books and files."

Mentioning Matt had the desired impact. Suddenly she was fussing over how Matt was doing and not him. He loved that his mom thought of Matt like a surrogate son. Especially when it meant that she had another person to focus her attention and worry on.

"He's fine, mom," Foggy told her. "We're both fine. Kicking ass and taking names, I promise you."

Another lie. Not just because their firm was struggling, but because Foggy knew that things between he and Matt were strained. At first, he hadn't told Matt about his financial problems because he didn't want to be a burden. He wanted Matt to be able to focus on their cases without the added pressure of knowing how much was on the line. But then everything escalated so quickly once the eviction notice appeared on his door.

Foggy knew that if he confessed now, Matt would probably happily let him stay with him, and would feel guilty and make a big deal out of it. Which is exactly why he couldn't tell him. When they finished school, Matt had argued with him so strongly about needing his space and his independence. Foggy didn't want to take that from him. It would be unfair.

No. Foggy would figure it out on his own. Besides, lying to his parents was one thing but he wasn't really lying to Matt. Matt hadn't asked to come over to his place in months. He hadn't taken the time to ask Foggy how he was feeling about everything. In fact, Matt had been strangely distant since their firm opened its doors. He'd stopped picking up his phone at night. Been seeing a woman who he clearly didn't want Foggy to know anything about.

If Matt asked, Foggy decided, he would tell him the truth. If Matt asked.

And in the meantime... he had received a couple of texts from Marci since their meeting at Landman and Zack. So maybe if he played his cards right, he wouldn't have to rely on the generosity of Mrs. Cardenas or continue sleeping in his office.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during episodes 7-8.

He was worried about Karen. But he hadn't followed her, even though he let her believe that he had. It upset him. He was blowing it with her, he knew. He liked her, but the few times they had hung out together had been awkward, if fun. It was disappointing. One more disappointing thing in his life lately. But he wasn't about to tell her he was having problems. She'd stop cashing their paychecks and he didn't want her to feel like she was a burden to them or leave.

He was actually just heading in the same direction as her. It turned out that Marci was working late at Landman and Zack and wouldn't be available until after midnight. And he didn't really feel like staying at the office again. Once everyone else had gone home for the night, it was cold and he was left alone with nothing but his own thoughts.

No, he wanted company. He was planning on ordering he and Elena a pizza and trying to make a plan for the drywall with her based on advice from his cousin when he spotted Karen being assaulted.

Funnily enough, he had the baseball bat with him to protect himself more than her. The neighborhood was rough at night.

Maybe he should start carrying mace too.

* * *

Working on unraveling the case of the Kingpin, the man behind Union Allied and Confederated Global and his connections to Elena's tenement case, proved to be a welcome distraction. One that Foggy desperately needed.

It meant more pro bono legal work, a prolonged investigation that distracted them from the real cases they needed to be taking. But Foggy knew that they were in too deep now. He had made a promise to Elena, and he owed it to Karen to help her, to figure this mess out. He couldn't walk away.

At least the business was doing alright. It wasn't succeeding, but it wasn't floundering either. They still had money in the firm's account - money from the Confederated Global case, money leftover even from their initial loan that was still there due to careful budgeting and planning. It was why at night the office lights went off and the heat went down, why their office equipment worked by a complex system of being hit in the right place and being turned off and back on again. The accountant was always surprised when they spoke, always overly concerned about their cash flow but certain that they still had time to turn it around. "It won't be that way forever though, Foggy," he always said at the end of the conversation. "You need to start bringing in billable clients."

So Foggy kept smiling. And he kept joking. Internally, he was always acutely aware of the precipice he was balancing on, but he had too many other people looking to him for support and help to ever let on that anything was wrong. Especially Matt. Because something was going on with Matt, Foggy knew. He couldn't deny it anymore. The distance. The injuries that his friend tried to hide but that gave themselves away in the way he moved and carried himself.

It was disturbing. And Foggy didn't know what to do about any of it.

So he just tried to pretend that everything was okay. And tried to have faith that, somehow, it would be.

* * *

It turned out that Marci wasn't stupid. Maybe it was when he asked to use her building's laundry room and then had to hang his suits to dry at her place, or maybe it was just the way that he pretended to fall asleep after sex whenever they hooked up so that she wouldn't kick him out, but she figured it out.

"You're actually homeless," she said, disgusted. "I am booty calling a homeless man. Are you kidding me? Ewwww."

"Come on, Marci. It's not like I'm pushing around a shopping cart full of stuff and growing out a beard to keep me warm or anything," Foggy told her, but he knew how hollow his argument sounded. Homeless. He hadn't really given himself that label before and it was upsetting to hear her put it that bluntly.

"I don't understand you, Foggy Bear," she told him. "You gave up a job where you could be making six figures a year to what? Follow Matt around and fight for the little guy for free? No offense to Matt, but you're letting the blind guy guide you! Does he even know what you're going through right now? Does he even care?"

"Of course he cares, Marci," Foggy insisted, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or her. "He cares too much, actually. That's why I haven't told him."

"Oh, sweetie," Marci said, rubbing his shoulder. "You are way too smart to have let this happen. What are you doing? Just cut your losses already."

"Marci, I can't just..." Foggy started to say, but it just came out a long sigh and a sniffle as he tried not to cry.

To her credit, Marci pulled him into a hug and held him for a moment. She rubbed his back as the tears began to fall and the anxiety and self-loathing consumed him completely.

Finally, when she could tell he had himself under control, she pulled back and reached into her nearby purse for her checkbook. Foggy was confused as she scribbled out the details on her coffee table until she held it out to him. It was for a few thousand dollars.

"Take it," she told him. "Use it for first and last month's rent somewhere halfway decent. And to dry clean your suits for the remaining duration of your stay here."

Foggy was moved, but handed it back to her. "I can't accept this, Marci. I have no idea when I could pay you back."

"Don't worry about that part, Foggy Bear," she told him. "And besides, it's really for my own benefit." She leaned in and kissed him. "Because now technically you're kind of my prostitute. It's surprisingly hot."

Foggy smiled shyly and laughed a little as she crawled on top of him. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, sucking on his bottom lip. "And I intend to make you earn your keep."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place during episodes 9-13.

Elena Cardenas was murdered. Stabbed to death by a drug dealer in her neighborhood. It didn't seem real to Foggy. It couldn't be real. But somehow, it was.

He had been there, spent the night there so many times when he had nowhere else to go. She was so kind, and she was so good to him, and where had he been when he needed her? At the office instead. Sleeping on the floor because he was too proud to keep taking anything from a woman who already had so little. It was his fault. He should have been there. With his baseball bat. Or, worse, he knew he should have convinced her to take the money. He was learning that lesson the hard way. Always take the money and run, he now knew. It`s pointless to fight it, in the end.

And the funeral expenses... they were going to have to come out of the business account. He knew Matt would understand, but he wasn't sure if Matt truly knew what it meant, or even cared at this point. They were running out of time. All of it, everything he had put himself through over the last few terrible months, was about to be for nothing.

It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair lately. Everything was falling apart.

Bess Mahoney kept calling him.

He couldn't take the pity, and so he didn't pick up. He spent his nights drinking at Josie's instead, and she was kind enough to let him pass out at the bar and not wake him up to kick him out.

* * *

He'd thought things couldn't get any worse. He was wrong.

Matt was bleeding out on the couch. Their former couch that they used to share back when they shared everything. Now, after months of sleeping on a cold office floor or in the bed of a woman who barely liked him, he felt more alone than he ever had in his life as he watched a stranger who knew more about Matt than he did patch the man who he had thought was his friend up. Realized the full extent of what Matt had been doing, the choices Matt had made for both of them behind his back.

He sacrificed everything for Nelson and Murdock. For what he thought was their dream, the dream of a partnership. Matt was willing to sacrifice everything too, but not for Foggy. The question was for what?

* * *

He never lied. He told himself that as he marched away from Matt's apartment, not even sure where the hell he was going. He omitted things, sure. To protect people, but also because they never really asked. But he never lied. And Matt had been lying since the day he had met him.

And the biggest lie of all was that Foggy had always been an open book. Since they met. Which meant that Matt knew. The entire time, Matt had to have known. He knew when Foggy hadn't showered. He knew when he was hungry and tired. And lately, he almost never showered and was always hungry and tired. So why did he let things go on for so long? Why hadn't he said anything? He cared about Matt, loved him like a brother, and he had always thought that Matt felt the same way about him. So how could Matt have kept doing what he was doing knowing that his best friend was drowning under the weight of keeping them going?

Matt was going to destroy himself. In fact, Foggy suspected he was intent on it. And Foggy was already in so deep and falling so fast that he didn't know if he'd be able to pull himself up from rock bottom when he finally hit it. He had no idea what the hell he was going to do.

* * *

He woke up on Brett's couch, not sure how he'd gotten there.

He was embarrassed when he learned that Josie had called Brett after the third night Foggy passed out at her bar. That Bess had insisted that Brett take him in, that Elena had told Bess that Foggy didn't have a place to live.

At least Bess hadn't told his parents. Thank goodness for small mercies, he supposed. He would take any win he could get where he could find it.

Marci helped too. She continually pestered him about good apartment listings she had seen, and had tried to slide another check across her coffee table towards him. He had turned it down. He was already too far in her debt and her jokes about him paying her back with sex were starting to make him hate himself and seem less funny the longer things continued.

He was so angry at Matt. But he also missed him. And worried about him. And he didn't want to keep trying to solve his problems alone anymore. Didn't want Matt to have to either. He was worried Matt was going to kill himself.

So he resolved to make peace. And hope that they could dig themselves out of the hole that they were both in together and figure things out from there.

* * *

A way to move forward. That's what Matt said. So Foggy decided to just put it out there.

"So we'll have to clean your place up then. It was a mess when I was there. And get some blackout curtains, I guess?" he asked Matt.

Matt stopped hitting the punching bag and turned to him, clearly surprised.

"What are you... I don't..." he stammered.

"That's what you meant right. The we could move forward by solving our problems together," Foggy told him. "I figured you'd want to start with the one where I don't have a place to live, buddy. It's kind of the easiest one to figure out. You have a place. I don't."

"What do you mean you don't... Foggy," Matt said, sincerity and shock in his voice, "What are you talking about?"

"Are you really going to pretend you didn't know, Matt? All that stuff about knowing when I showered last and hearing my heartbeat when I'm nervous. Come on," Foggy said.

"I didn't..." Matt sputtered. "What happened to your apartment?"

"I got evicted," Foggy confessed, realizing that maybe his friend wasn't as observant as he had initially thought.

"What? Why didn't you say anything? When?" Matt asked.

Foggy sighed. "Two months ago," he said. "Just after the Confederated Global case ended. I was already having a hard time and then the hospital bills wiped me out."

"You should have said something!" Matt said, angrily. "I mean, my God Foggy! Have you been sleeping in the office this entire time?"

"Not the entire time. Marci's been letting me stay with her some nights. And Elena..." Foggy said, but his voice began to crack and he couldn't continue as he thought about her.

"You were staying there? Foggy, her place had no water, no heat. And she... you could have..." Matt looked distraught thinking about it.

"You think I don't know that?" Foggy asked. "I just didn't know what else to do, Matt. I told you we needed billable clients. Repeatedly. And I didn't want to burden you, I trusted you to be as focused on the success of our new business as I was, which was clearly a mistake." He hadn't meant for the anger to resurface. This was supposed to be a conciliatory meeting, but he couldn't keep his feelings inside.

Matt didn't have anything to say to that. He just heaved a few deep breaths, as though he were choking on his own emotions, before he moved towards Foggy. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry. I knew..." he tried to say. "I knew that you were working late at the office, that you weren't eating or sleeping well. I just thought it was the stress of everything else going on. I didn't realize things had gotten that bad. How could I not have known that?"

Foggy could see the guilt written on his face. "It's okay, Matt. Really." And he meant it. "We just need to move forward. Marci lent me some money for first and last. I just need time to find a new place and somewhere to stay while I do. And I still think that maybe, if we're smart about it, we can turn everything around, alright?"

Matt nodded. And for the first time in what felt like ages, Foggy breathed a genuine sigh of relief.

* * *

The Hoffman case was a lot of work, but it was billable work. And it led to good publicity for Nelson and Murdock and a few more billable clients coming through the door, which felt like a miracle.

The Nelson and Murdock sign stayed up. Not just due to the increase in work, but also because, as the accountant advised Foggy to his surprise on their usual call to go over the accounts, a large infusion of new cash had been deposited. When Foggy asked Matt about it, he was grateful to hear that Matt had decided to use a significant chunk of his remaining savings to keep their doors open, and that when Karen's settlement from Union Allied had finally cleared and she had sorted out her own expenses, she had transferred the entire amount to them rather than only the $4000 for the office equipment she had purchased. Foggy protested that it was too much, but she insisted, telling them that she owed them for taking her case, for taking her in and for saving her life. Besides, she argued, if Nelson and Murdock didn't exist, she would be out of a job so it was the least she could do.

It turned out, though, that the thing that made the biggest difference was the legacy of Elena Cardenas. The executor of her estate was Bess Mahoney, who turned around and distributed a significant amount of Elena's money to Nelson and Murdock for taking her case. She also spread the word around her former neighbors letting them know who exactly had paid for her funeral expenses and taken their case up, and soon a collection was taken up to repay those costs and more to the firm for their support.

And their reputation as defenders of the impoverished and enemies of gentrification brought them even more clients. Clients who weren't always entirely innocent, but Matt decided that for Foggy's sake he would have to set aside some of his objections for the sake of the almighty dollar.

Soon, Foggy could afford his own place again, a nicer place even. But he continued to live with Matt. Matt insisted that he return Marci's money, and told him that now that his secret was out he liked having someone to come home to. And if Foggy noticed that Matt, and Karen once she found out about his situation, tended to hover over him a bit more, to ensure that the rounds were more often on them at Josie's or that they were the ones paying for dinner when they ate at the office, well he wasn't going to say anything.

He was happier than he'd been in months, even if so many things in his life had gone sideways. Because he had a home again, and it was with Matt. They were partners again, Nelson and Murdock, avocados at law. And he couldn't really ask for much more than that.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [Tumblr](http://enthusiasmgirl.tumblr.com). And I also moderate a fanfiction podcast called [The OTPodcast](http://otpodcast.tumblr.com).


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